Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil

My paternal grandmother had a little brass statue of the Three ‘Wise’ Monkeys sitting on the hutch in her kitchen.  As a child I hated them: I thought they were scary and ugly.  Ironically, as an adult I realise those monkeys represented the true values of my family – secrecy at all costs.

A conversation we must have

I used to be scared of the word suicide.  It was a dark, fearful & unknown term.  Even though I grew up knowing my maternal grandmother had taken her own life, it was more comfortable for me to think of suicide as a problem that affected others.  Horrifically, I also subscribed to the school of thought believing suicide was the ultimate in selfish acts; and I  even turned down a wonderful job opportunity because some of the clients were in a high risk category of suicide.  Yet look at where I am today – loud & vocal about our need to improve suicide awareness.